The Warrior of Love

How to change the current situation - Jiang Liu has thought about it many times and tried many methods.

From the most basic physical exercise, to the spiritual meditation to empty the mind, to the training of breathing method and the practice of domineering...

Jiang Liu tried all the power systems he currently had, but the two curses on his body remained unmoved.

He was still so weak, and had none of the strength he had before to fight monsters head-on. From time to time, he would be swept by the painful burning of "Shiranui" all over his body, and he could only barely hold on until his whole body was twitching.

Because of "Shiranui", he never had a complete sleep again, could hardly sing while eating, and his spirit became weaker and weaker day by day.

In just seven days, Jiang Liu seemed to have experienced a baptism of hell.

If his will was a little weaker, anyone else would have committed suicide long ago, but Jiang Liu gritted his teeth and persevered, though his mood inevitably became depressed.

So helpless!

He originally thought that his strength was pretty good even in Type-Moon. After all, if he went all out, even a first-rate Servant might not be his opponent. But there were too many monsters in the FGO world line...

Even without counting the beasts and crowns that appeared in the plot, a Yamata no Orochi could easily force him into a desperate situation, and the accumulated power seemed as illusory as bubbles.

He really has no ability to resist now.

On the second day after waking up, Jiang Liu found the sword and armor hidden by Zao Nu.

As a result, the Undying Slash was fine, but when he tried to put on the demon armor, he found something strange and decisively gave up on putting it on.

——He can’t suppress this thing now!

Once he puts it on, with his weak body, he will probably be drained of energy in a short time...

Although Jiang Liu recognized his embarrassing situation, he was always unwilling to accept his fate. During these seven days, he never gave up looking for a solution within himself - and Zao Nu watched all this silently.

Then, on the eighth day, the fox priestess took him to a place.

"well?"

Jiang Liu glanced at the well behind the shrine and looked at Zao Nu in confusion.

The girl with fox ears didn't have the usual smiling face, but instead looked very serious.

"Since ancient times, wells have been considered entrances to other worlds. Legend has it that underground water veins can even lead directly to the underworld."

Jiang Liu nodded when he heard this. This is indeed a saying in mysticism, especially in East Asian culture where it is basic common sense. There are countless legends that combine "well" and "yin".

"What did you bring me here for?"

"I didn't intend to do this...but I just couldn't bear to watch it."

The algae girl showed a heartbroken expression: "Even if I lose you, I don't want to see you continue to suffer."

"you?"

"Listen carefully, Jiang Liujun. If you want to regain your power no matter what - then die once!"

Jiang Liu was slightly startled, but he did not lose control although he was surprised. He stared at Zao Nu with clear eyes, not doubting her but waiting for her explanation.

"The "Shiranui" and "Yellow Spring" are intertwined, and it is an unsolvable curse for the living... but it is only for the living. If you can enter the land of the underworld and then return to the human world, you can confuse the concepts of life and death, and you can get rid of these two curses."

The algae girl took a deep breath and said firmly: "So you must die once!"

"I see..." Jiang Liu looked at the well, "Use this?"

"I will open the barrier of Yomi Hirasaka for you, and you can enter the land of the dead in your physical body. Do you really want to do this? Although this is my suggestion...but I also hope that you have other choices."

The girl mustered up the courage to look into Jiang Liu's eyes: "I hope you can consider a future with me!"

I've only been with her for a week, but for some reason I feel as if we have been connected in a previous life and are so familiar with each other - Jiang Liu smiled silently.

"Don't make it sound like a farewell (although it is). I must go, but I will be back - I promise you."

Zao Nu pulled out a strand of her hair, tied one side on her right little finger and the other side on Jiang Liu's left little finger. Then, in a flash, the hair disappeared.

"This is an agreement... You don't have much time, you must come back before you are discovered."

"Who discovered it?"

"Who? Everyone! All the... dead."

Chapter 128: Inside and Outside the Torii

thump--

I felt a huge pressure on my ears and a feeling of suffocation between my mouth and nose, as if I was sinking in a deep and cold lake.

There was nothing to hold onto, no light or warmth, and I just sank powerlessly and quietly...

"Hmm! Huh, hh, hh..."

He suddenly opened his eyes and felt the hard touch of a stone slab beneath him. Jiang Liu's eyes kept moving, observing everything in his field of vision in panic.

This chaotic situation ended after five seconds. Jiang Liu gradually calmed down, climbed up from the ground, and found himself sitting in the center of the street.

The sky cannot be seen, only the buildings on both sides. Each building is hung with red lanterns, emitting a hazy glow, making the street look somewhat warm.

"Just looking at the buildings, it looks a bit like Kabukicho." Jiang Liu was walking down the street in a light blue kimono, with only an Undead Sword on his waist.

"The curse...hasn't been lifted."

Jiang Liu looked at both ends of the street. One end extended into the depths of chaos, and he could not see what the scene was like. It was like pure nothingness. The other side was brightly lit, and the scenery in the distance was submerged in the blurred light and shadow.

The curses of "Shiranui" and "Yellow Spring" did not disappear. Although Jiang Liu felt incredibly relieved, he had not yet achieved his ultimate goal.

"Maybe, it's because this place is not the real underworld yet, just the border."

If this is really the border, then it is obvious where to go - Jiang Liu walked towards the dimly lit street.

Although it is the underworld, it is not as eerie and scary as imagined. Instead, it is very quiet and warm. However, the empty streets give people a very eerie feeling.

He didn't think of exploring those houses. Although there was no movement inside and they seemed to be empty, his intuition told him that going in was definitely not a good choice.

Yes, there was no one on the entire street. The only ones moving around were Jiang Liu and his shadow.

When passing by those lanterns, his shadow lengthened, widened, twisted, and disappeared as the angle changed. Whenever the strange black shadow was imprinted on the vertical wall, Jiang Liu always held the hilt of the knife with his hand, as if ghosts and monsters would jump out of it at any time.

Fortunately, Shadow was safe and sound until Jiang Liu arrived at the "archway".

After walking for half an hour, what we saw was a building similar to a torii, but it should be a "torii".

This is something that often appears in front of shrines or temples. It looks like a simple wooden pillar, but it has a special meaning in Shintoism.

If the "well" is the gateway to other worlds, then the "torii" is the dividing line between different worlds.

Dusk and night, humans and ghosts, the human world and the other world... There is also a saying that stepping into the Torii gate means entering a world where non-human beings exist.

The torii gate that Jiang Liu saw was more magnificent than most of the ones in the world today. The red paint was evenly applied on the surface, and it cast a hazy look in the light of the lantern, as if one would easily get lost if one stared at it for too long.

"call……"

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Liu tightly grasped the Undying Sword at his waist and stepped into the Torii gate.

At this moment, it was as if he had passed through some invisible film. Jiang Liu only felt himself naked and being blown by the cold wind, and he shivered subconsciously.

It was at this moment that he caught a glimpse of a figure passing by.

No, more than one!

People kept passing by him, and the crowd ahead was as crowded as a city street.

However, the people making up this flow of people are not real "people", but rather guys without facial features and limbs, who seem to be dragging a gray bed sheet, leaving only blurry figures.

It neither stopped nor spoke, just like an ant that was silent and endless. Even when it was face to face with Jiang Liu, it had no reaction. It even walked past him very close without noticing, as if Jiang Liu did not exist at all.

Jiang Liu turned around silently, only to see that the torii gate behind him was still unchanged, but the opposite side of the torii gate, which was the direction Jiang Liu came from, was still filled with gray figures coming and going - but Jiang Liu had not seen any of them before.

It's not a trick, nor is it a simple space barrier. Jiang Liu is very sure of this.

Then that’s it…

“Is the ‘world’ you’re in different?”

To put it simply, the world is likened to a "blanket". Jiang Liu and these figures are on different "blankets", but in terms of spatial position, the two blankets are covered one on top of the other and completely overlap.

Generally speaking, each of them would not affect each other on their own carpet, but nothing is absolute in the world, and the Torii gate at this moment acts as a bridge connecting the world.

However, even if these gray figures passed through the torii, they seemed unable to reach the "other side", at least Jiang Liu had not seen any on the way here.

So, the dead cannot really pass through the torii gate... Are "living people" like Jiang Liu who can pass through freely the exception?

"Tsk, I don't understand." Jiang Liu said in his heart.

There are still many things that cannot be explained about the details of the Torii, but Jiang Liu does not have the time to explore it in depth.

Do you want to continue going down?

A question popped up in Jiang Liu's mind, making him hesitate.

After entering the Torii, he clearly felt that the power of the curse on him had weakened a lot. If before he still had to take several breaths to perform even basic movements, now he has caught up with normal humans... no, far exceeded it!

Even though he is still far from his peak, he is now able to fight defensive battles with average servants. Of course, servants rely on their Noble Phantasms to determine victory or defeat, and Jiang Liu is only talking about "naked" servants.

You know, if a servant doesn't have a Noble Phantasm, he's just like a salted fish.

But after only a brief pause, Jiang Liu continued to move forward: just reducing the pressure is not enough!

If Jiang Liu just wanted to survive, there was no need for him to come here to take risks. His goal was to completely eliminate the curse and restore his original strength!

"You can't speak, you can't turn your head, you can't stare at them, and you can't confront them..."

Jiang Liu held his breath and walked carefully on the street, trying to avoid every gray figure and not having any contact with them in any form. The gray shadows also ignored him and just kept moving forward with their heads down.

There is obviously nothing waiting for them to do, but they seem very busy.

This street was unusually long. Jiang Liu didn't know how many gray figures he had dodged before the curse in his body suddenly "jumped". All the muscles in his body tensed up for a moment, and it was for no reason...

The greater the reaction of the curse, the more Jiang Liu will move in that direction!

Chapter 129: Look, Red Yama’s mother!

The so-called other world is more prosperous than Jiang Liu had imagined. It is not a barren Gobi desert or a purgatory full of magma.

On the contrary, this place is full of buildings that are similar to those in the modern world. Except that there are no living people living in them, they look no different from ancient towns.

But if you think about it carefully, there is nothing strange about it. The underworld is the underworld, and hell is hell. The two cannot be generalized.

The underworld is the kingdom of the dead, where all the deceased people live, while hell is the place where wicked people who committed serious crimes in their lifetime are punished. Of course, they cannot be the same.

Although the place where Jiang Liu was located had also entered the realm of the underworld, it was at most the top layer, which was far away from the legendary "Eight Hells". Generally speaking, sinners would truly reach hell only after going through multiple trials, including those by the Grandma Who Snatches Clothes and the Ten Kings of Hell.

It is no exaggeration to say that the process of going to hell is more complicated than going to prison in this world...

Jiang Liu was careful not to come into contact with any undead spirits. He walked through the red lantern streets that looked like Kabukicho and passed through a torii gate again. The scenery in front of him turned into an endless field. A dim, turbid stream stretched across the land, blocking Jiang Liu's sight.

At this time Jiang Liu also realized that the deeper he went into the underworld, the "lighter" the curse on his body became. After passing through the second torii, the effect of the double curse on him was almost non-existent.

Jiang Liu clenched his fists and felt the long-lost sense of strength. He couldn't help but feel pleasantly surprised. However, he remembered that he was still in the underworld full of dangers, so he suppressed his excitement and began to search for a boat or bridge to cross the river.

Although the goal was barely achieved, since we had come to such a place, we might as well go deeper and completely remove the two curses to avoid them remaining on our bodies and annoying others.

Looking at the turbid river water, the river current has no intention of swimming across. Various underworld myths from ancient times to the present, both in China and abroad, have emphasized one point: in the land of the dead, you must follow the rules, stay steady and don't waste time.

Anyone who breaks his promise and cannot control himself, whether he is a mortal or a demigod, will fail. Even the main gods may fail. Only a few heroes like Hercules and the Monkey King who are destined to be the protagonists can ignore this rule.

Swim across the river?

Jiang Liu will try to cross the Dead River after he has maxed out his physique and magic resistance, acquired two or three resurrection skills, and achieved the title of the best survivor. Now he is still a small fry who can be forced into a desperate situation by a mere curse.

There is no ferryman in Greek mythology on the Dead River in Japan. Jiang Liu searched for a long time but did not see even a piece of wood floating on the river. However, after walking along the river for a distance, he was surprised to find a small mahogany bridge.

He looked around and examined the wooden bridge for a long time without stepping on it.

Theoretically, all ghosts will wade directly through the water. This process itself is a baptism of their memories of their previous lives. Since ghosts are weightless, they can naturally cross over easily.

So...who was this bridge prepared for?

It’s no wonder Jiang Liu hesitated, it was really too suspicious.

But after waiting for a long time, he couldn't find any other way to cross the river, and nothing unusual happened on the wooden bridge, so Jiang Liu had no choice but to try to walk up.

As a result, the wooden bridge was unexpectedly safe and there was no bad noise when walking on it. It was just like an ordinary small bridge.

When he reached the highest point, Jiang Liu remembered something and looked down. His scalp went numb at one glance!

Hands... countless hands were waving beneath the calm water, there were probably thousands or tens of thousands of them just within the field of vision.

They were crowded together, so dense that there was no space to be seen. They were like seaweed trying desperately to grab something upwards, but they just couldn't break through the thin water surface. Looking from above, it felt like a reflection of another world... It was also the worst dream.